Friday, July 23, 2010

A Great Race Forward

The office has been uncharacteristically busy the past few weeks. Our elderly partner, the friend of my grandfather, and a heroic peacekeeper, died last Monday (I have included his obituary at the end of this post). He worked with my boss for 37 years and rightly, there have been many visitors, and much absent-mindedness. I am cleaning out his office now, and find bottles of vodka, cigar ashtrays, buckshot for birds, and paper upon paper of recommendations written to various presidents. He is “the last of the old guard”, a remnant from an age of unsullied glory and full-hearted pursuits. I am wiping away the dust from years of gallantry and utter particularity that have settled on the surface of old oak desks and globes with hidden bars inside, and almost ironically the series premier of Mad Men airs in a few days.

There is a buzz I feel as I am given task upon task, as I pull out piles of old files and messy boxes of errant notices. The phone rings in the middle of my sweaty cleaning, and I go back to filing only to answer the phone again. This, my friends, is what I envisioned as a child when I first became aware that I would be a great secretary – the bombardment of organizing needs, the reflexes needed to keep everything utterly and perfectly ahead of what is needed. Already hours have passed and I have not touched my blog reader. A wave of fondness for my boss crashes upon me, and I am reminded that indeed I do have potential!

This next week will be spent vacationing – in the breezes of the North Carolina shores. A house full of twelve people, at least, a great dear friend, and several great intentions will converge upon eight or nine full days of escapism. Last year, when I went, I was nervous. The older adults (how strange to have to refer to the parents and aunts and uncles as “older adults”! Writing simply “the adults” is useless, as we are all over 20!) spoke often how all year long they waited for this one week of vacation. At the time I thought, how sad! But now I have spent a year in great anticipation and realize that it is not sad to look forward longingly at this week, but how lucky we are that it is possible!

Today is a day that makes patience sensible. As so many around me are leaping forward deservedly into promotions and raises and great big plans, I sometimes rebuke myself for not making different choices. Not that I am unhappy, as you are all aware, but that I worry I have put to waste opportunities. But today, I can see the small changes in my life that occur before great upheaval. I can relish the pings of coins that I am saving, the strength in my legs I am earning, and the time spent with my family that I can never regret. There are choices to be made for the next few months, but none of them worth agonizing over. For now, I will race to finish my tasks so I can leave in peace and think nothing of this work for a full week.


Jack O'Connell, 88, dies; diplomatic adviser to Jordan's King Hussein
By T. Rees Shapiro
Sunday, July 18, 2010

Jack O'Connell, 88, who as a CIA station chief in Amman, Jordan, became King Hussein's diplomatic adviser and closest American confidant, strengthening U.S. ties with the crucial Middle East ally, died of congestive heart failure July 12 at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County. He was a Rosslyn resident.

Dr. O'Connell, who was trained as a lawyer, joined the CIA in the late 1940s and served in Beirut before becoming station chief in Jordan from 1963 to 1971. Bordered by Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is considered one of America's most important allies in the Middle East, in part because of its savvy intelligence service.

Dr. O'Connell, whose time in Jordan coincided with the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War in June 1967 and the brutal expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1970, fostered a fraternal bond with the king and was considered an adopted member of the royal family, said Richard Viets, a former U.S. ambassador to Jordan.

A burly, blue-eyed Midwesterner of Irish descent, Dr. O'Connell had a quiet, self-effacing demeanor but was, nonetheless, among the best-known Americans in Jordan.

In 1967, he played a key role in negotiating U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which sought to establish peace in the Middle East after Syria, Egypt and Jordan had combined forces in the six-day conflict with Israel. Although Resolution 242 was never fully adopted, it remains the blueprint for Middle East peace agreements today.

Jordan lost control of the West Bank to Israel in the war, and about 300,000 Palestinians from that region fled to Jordan. Many joined guerrilla groups that aligned themselves with the PLO.

In 1970, Hussein sought to dissolve the growing power of the PLO, leading to the month-long civil war known as "Black September."
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Within two years, Dr. O'Connell had left Jordan, retired from the CIA and joined a Washington law firm that became O'Connell and Glock. He remained Hussein's personal lawyer and political adviser in Washington until the monarch's death in 1999.

"Jack O'Connell had a closer relationship with King Hussein than any other American official before or after, one that was based on mutual respect and absolute trust," Avi Shlaim wrote in his 2007 book "Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace."

John William O'Connell was born Aug. 18, 1921, in Flandreau, S.D. He played defensive end at the University of Notre Dame on a football scholarship but transferred to Georgetown University after a car accident left him unable to play.

His education was interrupted by Navy service in World War II aboard a minesweeper patrolling the smoldering remains of Nagasaki's harbor shortly after the Japanese surrender.

In 1946, he graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, where he received a law degree in 1948. He joined the CIA the same year and was sent to the University of the Punjab in Pakistan on a Fulbright scholarship, receiving a master's degree in Islamic law in 1952. He returned to Georgetown and received a doctorate in international law in 1958.

One of the events that catalyzed his friendship with Hussein occurred that same year. For his first foreign CIA assignment, Dr. O'Connell was sent to Jordan to help foil a coup attempt on the 22-year-old king's throne by restive Jordanian military officers. In the course of several months, Dr. O'Connell helped unravel the plot and assist in the arrest of the rogue officers.

During his time in Jordan, Dr. O'Connell was responsible for helping to expand the powers and capabilities of the Jordanian intelligence service with CIA funding and training. In 1977, news reports revealed that Hussein had been a paid informant for the CIA.

In the early 1990s, Dr. O'Connell helped facilitate, through the Jordanian king, negotiations with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War. Dr. O'Connell's memoir, currently under CIA review, is scheduled to be published by W.W. Norton in 2011.

His first wife, Katherine MacDonald O'Connell, died in 1972. He later married Syble McKenzie O'Connell, who died in 1990. An infant child from his first marriage, Mary Frances O'Connell, died in 1949.

Survivors include two children from his first marriage, Kelly Ann O'Connell of Annandale and Sean O'Connell of Fairfax County; and a grandson.

One day in the 1990s, Dr. O'Connell and Viets were walking out of the Jordanian Foreign Ministry when the former defensive end tripped and fell down a steep flight of steps and broke his leg.

On the suggestion that he seek medical attention, Dr. O'Connell replied: "Irishmen don't wear casts."

Instead, he used a cane and walked on the broken leg until it healed.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Idea #2

I'm intrigued by food bloggers.
I'm thinking of starting an experiment where I food blog for a week.
This came to my mind because my salad was just so pretty today and there are so many people that go around their lives taking pictures of everything they eat. I kind of want pictures of the beautiful things I eat to share with you sometimes.

Weird?
Don't worry - there is absolutely ZERO chance this would be permanent. My attention span/interest/level of caring is just not there. Not even close.

Guiltfree and Long Lived

My muse inspired this. I'm sorry it's a bit long.
Here is a link to a post and comments on a different blog regarding the same topic, but differently: http://runningnina.onsugar.com/When-Working-Out-Doesnt-Work-Out-8914572.

Sometimes, workouts don't happen. And by sometimes, I mean quite a lot. Periods of "fail workouts" or just plain don't make it to the gym days come and go in waves for me- some weeks I hit the pavement every day, other weeks I can't seem to make it out of the door once, needless to say pick up a weight or roll out my mat.

These weeks when I don't workout suck. They make me feel like a total failure and a total fatty and this stress contributes to not getting out again. Until finally I push myself through a full two miles or whatever and get my mojo back. And sometimes I eat(i mean drink) so much I might not as well have run 7 miles at all!

This leads to exercise guilt. Guilt over not being badass enough (we are familiar with this), guilt over being normal.
I have a hard time, as we know, NOT being badass, NOT being the girl who gets out the door for hours a day. What does this do? Stresses me out. Stress makes me anxious. And anxiety increases blood pressure, thus contributing to the degeneration of my well-being. Basically, worrying about not being healthy enough reduces my overall health.

This is often linked to the distinctive thought pattern that "if only I ran more, I would look like Dara Torres". And that's supposed to make my life better? HOW?! HOW does looking like an Olympic Athlete improve ANYTHING in my life? Answer: it doesn't. My life will not get easier with ripped muscles. While losing a few pounds will improve my life a little bit, spending all of my free time lugging giant weights around so I can have visible splits in my calf muscles actually WASTES my time and certainly will not improve any of my relationships.



But today I am resolving to change my concept of WHY I workout. The more I read, the more modern exercise science (yes, I know, which is terribly young) claims that exercise has a different purpose than losing weight. What I find interesting is that it wasn't until the past few decades that we even realized that moving a particular amount/more would contribute to smaller bodies, or even cared. Previously, weight loss was all about food. Exercise was about work.

And apparently, that is still the case. Weight loss is still mostly about food. Truth be told that it is a lot easier to cut out soda and candy from your diet, thus cutting a few hundred calories a day, than to go to the gym for an hour. While both work, changing your food is a lot easier than changing your other habits. Apart from that, new studies show that exercise, while a great contributor to overall health, often increases appetite, becoming also a great contributor to weight gain.

How funny!

But aerobic exercise, stretching, and weight bearing moving are clearly still great for a host of other things besides weight loss.

Here is a short list of things exercise improves: stamina in bed, mobility, comfort in heat, energy levels, overall happiness due to increased hormones, the length of your life, diet (apparently, the more you work out the better you want to eat - science!), intelligence (from a newly figured out protein named Noggin), memory, time management.

Here is a short list of things exercise prevents: bone loss, heart disease, depression, anxiety, broken bones, sleep loss, obesity, diabetes, pain from aging, pain from normal movement, muscle and ligament tears from day to day activities.

So, I decided that I am going to remind myself that I workout so I can enjoy and remember my grandkids' graduations, and so I can play with Sam & Hannah on the weekends, and take Lucy for walks in the summer heat, and raise the mainsail, and carry groceries, and hike Mt. Washington and Macchu Piccu.

And maybe also so I can have that martini at happy hour.

Idea

Guys
What do you think about this idea -
Its been on my mind for a while and I'm basically obsessed.
We all love micro-brews right (duh)?
What about micro-distilling? Smaller, craft bourbons and vodkas with finely tuned flavors and infusions?

I basically want this to be my career. Can't you see it - de Groot brand Bourbon?

Optimist Post

Today is one of those days where I am not, surprisingly, OVERWHELMED with how many options there are in the healthy-food arena (so many salads! so many smoothie options! sauteed green everything! fruit with so many protein options! nuts! grains!), or how you really have to work out about 3 hours a day or more to incorporate all the options and more or less 'necessary' workouts into your week (think about it: circuits, weight-bearing, yoga, interval, hill, long runs, speedwork, plyometrics, isometrics and functional - not counting the different TYPES of yoga, or weights to use, etc).

Instead, I am utterly thrilled with the fact that I can focus now on one set, and when it becomes necessary to switch up my routine or my diet, there are a bazillion different options. Keeping things interesting and new isn't a chore because there are just so many ways to do it!

We all know my fondness for kale, but here are a few other foods that I feel are SUPER wonderful for their intense nutrient packing and utter versatility.

Avocado:
Healthy fats galore! Not just for guacamole anymore! Use instead of butter in baking, or adorn absolutely any dish with slices of it. They also work great for texture in smoothies.



Coconut:
Also, healthy fats. Also - put flakes on cereals, puddings, soups, salads, use the virgin oil instead of butter for sauteeing or in oatmeal, whip it into a cream with a nut-milk to use in baking or instead of whipped cream! Or, just drink it. Also, great on hair and skin. And we all know how I love to use my kitchen for beauty products (mostly I'm too lazy to go to CVS, but whatevs).



Quinoa:
A complete protein in itself (which means they also have a complete set of amino acids along with the protein, as opposed to, say, soy), this grain was used as a primary food source for and revered by the Incas (god I love them) and come in many colored varieties. They are a natural pesticide, and terribly easy to grow in the right climate. It can be used as a cereal grain for breakfast, or in salads, smoothies, or as a dish on its own with meats or other grains or veggies. LIMITLESS PROTEIN PEOPLE!



Now don't you totally want me to cook you dinner?

True Story




One night this past weekend, the boyfriend and I went to bed. Not too early, not too late, not drunk, just happy sleepy people.

When we woke up, the pillow covers to ALL FOUR pillows had been slipped off and placed in the very middle of the pillows. To elaborate: I only use one pillow. I never touch other pillows during the night. All pillows were still in their rightful and proper places like good pillows should be. Neither of us had particularly unrestful or fitful dreams, nor do we remember anything unusual.

The pillow cases were off, that's all.

Monday, July 5, 2010

She Moves!











The great fantastic high point of the weekend - other than its utter awesomeness - was getting the boat going! That's right, we sailed her, and plan on working her quite hard through the following summer. The boyfriend will hate me if he sees I put these pictures up but - whatevs.

Beer, Bourbon, Barbecue, and Lemons






















Photos from my last party in Takoma park




















Friday, July 2, 2010

1st Weekend of July

Tomorrow, this is happening:

also, a bunch of this:


and damn well a bunch of this:







HAPPY AMERICA EVERYONE!

Summer Yuck

This past week I have been sick - weirdly - with a pretty absurd summer bug.
Note, this may or may not be actually side effects of a vaccine I got at the doctor's last week, but my mom is now sick with something similar so maybe it is an illness instead.

Symptoms: stupid digestion - painful, and weird. Not gross, just different than my normal digestion which I pretty much have regulated down to a science.
and exhaustion, a my-muscles-are-all-really-heavy-and-all-i-want-to-do-is-lay-down-and-sleep-but-i'm-not-actually-sleepy exhaustion, that comes on fast for a half hour and then leaves, wherein I can rally enough energy to convince myself to do something productive like go for a run, wherein the exhaustion sets in immediately. And this is a pronounced level of tiredness that I am very much not making up or using as an excuse to not workout. Because i love having energy. And I love working out. And don't like making excuses when I don't have to.

Smoothies

I've been pretty obsessed with them lately.
Which is a ginormous understatement.
I have gotten in upset moods - truthfully - because I have not been able to have as many smoothies in one day as the recipes I dream up. Nor can I afford to stock everything I would like to use in so many smoothies. I contemplated starting a blog about smoothies, and going on a smoothie-a-day challenge to enlighten the world on their wonderful properties.
All that has already been done.
So I made this chart: